Why Arkane is Putting Focus on Four Specific Elements of Prey

As has become the case with AAA releases during this generation, developers have often attempted to build up hype with gameplay trailers that focus on specific aspects of the new release, to entice different fans who garner more enjoyment from different facets of the impending game. Bethesda and Arkane have been doing just that with their latest title, Prey, a sci-fi first-person action game with a complicated development history and an even scarier world filled with aliens, unique abilities, and a haunting score. Over the past month, the studio has released quite a few trailers detailing various aspects of Prey, and each one provides interesting tidbits at what we can expect from the full title when it launches on May 5.

Easily the most lighthearted of the recent videos, Mimic Madness shows just a few of the hundreds of ways that players can take advantage of the titular ability. While controlling inanimate objects is certainly not an original idea of Prey’s, the means by which creative players can manipulate it to suit their needs are vast and startling, showcasing how the Dishonored developer has continued to evolve their core game mechanic of player freedom. Sneak past deadly aliens by becoming a coffee mug, or take them out by inhabiting a machine-gun touting turret. Solve puzzles by shrinking down to inhuman sizes, or become a box of pizza just for the hell of it. The possibilities seem too numerous to count, and the unique solutions players will come up with are sure to both amuse and enlighten after launch.

Luckily for players, Mimic Madness is not the only power protagonist Morgan Yu will be able to get their hands on. Through the simple process of sticking a giant needle into your eye, players will be able to enhance their strength and speed to overcome and outlast the alien hordes, as well as improve themselves via more supernatural means. Lighting objects on fire or tossing enemies with your mind certainly have their uses, but they work even better when combined with some of the game’s unique weapons, as exemplified by the latter trailer above. Just like Dishonored before it, Arkane’s mixture of combat with depth and improvisation seems to be present in full-force in Prey, and the title looks all the better for it.

Last year’s Doom was filled with frantic gameplay and bloody action, and it had a stellar soundtrack to complement(scoring Hardcore Gamer’s Best Original Soundtrack award during our 2016 GOTY awards), representing one of the many pleasant surprises that id’s shooter had to deliver. Fortunately, fans of composer Mick Gordon’s work won’t have to wait much longer for his next set of tracks, as he’s providing the background ambiance of Prey’s Talos I spaceship. With the video above providing a taste of the wide variety of moods Gordon is hoping to capture, Prey’s soundtrack is looking to be a more diverse offering from the talented musician, helping to boost the gameplay of the space-based adventure.

One of Prey’s early critiques since the game was re-revealed at last year’s E3 was the somewhat bland designs of the aliens. They initially appeared to be simplistic in their composition, causing some to worry that facing these extraterrestrials would get repetitive quickly. To calm some of those concerns, Bethesda released the above gameplay that shows off some of the enemy types that players will be avoiding or eliminating, while simultaneously displaying that what the aliens lacked in design variety, they made up for in unique powers. Some of the aliens even share abilities with the player-character, creating a sense of intrigue as to which other powers Morgan Yu may acquire from the very creatures he or she seeks to separate themselves from. With additional enemy types all but guaranteed to show their terrifying heads later on in the campaign, players are looking to have their hands full when the game drops on May 5 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.